If you think you've never heard the late Tito Puente's music you're probably wrong; Santana's version of Puente's "Oye Como Va" has been all over the radio since 1971. Santana cribbed a lot of other ideas from Puente's work too; percussion heavy songs like Dance Mania's "Cuando Te Vea" have been reworked into numerous Santana numbers. And while acts like Santana can interpret Puente's sound in a soulful and spiritual way no one can match the original for pure sexiness. The King of Mambo kept the dance floor packed but what Puente really peddled was romance. There's no doubt that countless trysts have begun shortly after a dance to his frenetic vibes workout "Hong Kong Mambo" and maybe concluded with "Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembe" which obligingly speeds up in tempo at song's end a la "Bolero." This 2-CD version of Dance Mania contains the entire original Dance Mania album from 1958, Dance Mania Vol. 2 from 1961 and 21 bonus tracks from the same era. Puente mostly played timbales on these compositions but as a bandleader he liked lots of brass and many of these songs swing to an eight-man trumpet and sax section.

Olatunji
Drums of Passion: Legacy Edition
Columbia/Legacy

This 2-CD set combines the Nigerian drummer's 1960 debut Drums of Passion and its 1966 follow-up More Drums of Passion. Working with a large ensemble consisting of four drummers and 9 singers Olatunji gave the U.S. its first (commercially successful) taste of traditional African music as world beat long before the term was coined. The hypnotic swirl of drums in songs like "Oya (Primitive Fire)" inspired Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and in turn virtually every jam band drummer extant today while the rhythmic "Jin-Go-La-Ba" was recorded by Santana as "Jingo." Several of the included bonus tracks are previously unreleased in the States and some feature jazz luminaries of the day Clark Terry, Yusef Lateef and Ray Barretto.

Marcio Local
Says Don Dree Don Day Don Don
Luaka Bop